North Shore Sanitary Dist. v. Pollution Control Bd.

Under orders of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the District was preparing to remove 80% of phosphates from its discharges by the end of 1972. By administrative ruling of the Board, the District was ordered to meet that standard by 1971. The Board denied a variance, but that denial was reversed by the appellate court on the grounds that the Board admittedly based its decision upon facts, data and testimony which do not appear in the record. That error cannot be corrected by later placing all the Board's files upon which it based its decision into the record, nor should the Board's special expertise require the court to defer to this departure from normal administrative practice.